U.S. Department of Justice: Legal Assistance for Victims Grant Program

Deadline: February 16, 2017

The Legal Assistance for Victims (LAV) Grant is intended to increase the availability of civil and criminal legal assistance needed to effectively aid adult and youth victims of sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking who are seeking relief in legal matters relating to or arising out of that abuse or violence, at minimum or no cost to the victims. The LAV Grant Program supports holistic and comprehensive legal services, which involves treating the client as a whole person with access to a range of services beyond legal representation (such as counseling, support groups, and shelter/housing assistance), and a wide range of legal services to meet victim needs (such as filing protection orders, representation in housing or matrimonial court). LAV Grant Program funds may not be used to provide criminal defense services. The LAV Grant Program makes awards to law school clinics, domestic violence victims’ programs and shelters, bar associations, rape crisis centers and other sexual assault services programs, private nonprofit entities, Indian tribal governments and tribal organizations, territorial organizations, and legal aid or statewide legal service organizations. Grant funds may be used to provide direct legal services to victims of sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking in matters relating to or arising out of that abuse or violence. The objective of the LAV Grant Program is to develop innovative, collaborative projects that provide quality representation to victims of sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking.

Applications proposing activities in sexual assault services will be given special consideration during the review process. The Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) recognizes the need to place increased focus on sexual assault, beyond intimate partner sexual assault, in order to address the lack of available direct legal services for survivors of sexual assault and the unique aspects of sexual assault trauma from which survivors must heal. Applications submitted under this priority area cannot focus solely or primarily on serving survivors of intimate partner sexual assault.

Amount: Approximately $35,000,000 is available for up to 60 awards. Funding levels under the LAV Grant Program for FY 2017 are as follows:

New and Continuation LAV Grant Program applications that are proposing to provide primarily domestic violence focused legal services or less than 80% sexual assault focused legal services may request up to $600,000.

New and Continuation LAV Grant Program applications proposing to provide 80% or more sexual assault focused legal services, beyond intimate partner sexual assault, may request up to $800,000.

Eligibility: Private nonprofit entities; publicly funded organizations not acting in a governmental capacity; territorial organizations; Indian tribal governments; tribal organizations; and Indian tribal consortia. Both new and continuation grants will be made.